


I wanna ask why (but I'm still stuck on the how)

by Artemis_Luna



Series: All Things Karivarry/Superflarrow [6]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Supergirl (TV 2015), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Adorable Barry Allen, Adorable Kara Danvers, Alternate Universe, BAMF Kara Danvers, Bisexual Barry Allen, Bisexual Oliver Queen, Bodyswap, Established Relationship, Humor, Implied Clark Kent/Winn Schott Jr. - Freeform, Karivarry - Freeform, Karivarry is Adorable Fight Me, Minor Clark Kent/Winn Schott Jr., Multi, Superflarrow - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-02-26 12:29:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13235763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artemis_Luna/pseuds/Artemis_Luna
Summary: Barry, Kara and Oliver all switch bodies. That's it really.





	1. The Beginning

His eyes snap open to extremely bright and harsh light that forces him to close them shut again.

"Guys, he's awake!" Someone yells from his side. Is that Iris? Sounds like her. But what's Iris doing in the Arrow Cave? (He'd spent enough time with Kara, Barry, Cisco and Felicity so it rubbed off on him.)

"Oh thank God," someone else (Cisco?) says.

He opens his eyes again, slower this time to allow them to adjust, only to have them widen at the realization that he was in S.T.A.R. Labs, specifically in the makeshift medical wing. He could recognize the place by the walls alone, having been there too many times waiting on Barry to wake up, other times he'd be waiting on Kara, and for the rest of the while, he'd be waiting on both. Kara and Barry may have been given superpowers, but _not_ getting themselves knocked out isn't one of them. 

But he's never actually had to wake up in it before.

He tries to get up, but two things stop him: Caitlin's steady and firm hand forcing back down as she berates him, and the sudden sharp pain that thunders in his head.

He doesn't remember getting his head hit in the past twenty-four hours, so why does it feel like someone had left a jackhammer in his skull? 

Well, he wouldn't be the best judge. If he  _had_ been hit in the head, then he couldn't trust his memories, recent as they may seem.

"I swear, Barry, if you try to get up one more time I'll—"

Caitlin isn't able to finish her threat because he cuts her off worriedly. "Barry?" Last he checked, Barry's not in the room. That's... disconcerting. He does a quick survey around the room again just to absolutely make sure. "Where is he?" His eyebrows furrows; is it just him or does he sound different?

"Uh oh, this is not good." Cisco steps closer, concerned. "How hard did that meta hit you?" Okay, so he _had_ been hit. Had he been helping Barry with a meta problem? Is that why he's in Central City? Did he come alone? His team is nowhere to be found, so he must've come alone.

"I'm—" He stops himself when he lifts his hand and sees red.

A red glove.

He quickly looks down at his body and—

He's wearing the Flash suit.

He groans as he throws himself back down onto the pillows. "You have  _got_ to be kidding me."

* * *

He flinches as he quickly puts his hands up.

"I'm giving you ten seconds," Kara's sister says in a low, dangerous tone that would always scare the bejesus out of him. "Who are you and what have you done to my sister?"

Of course this had to happen.  _Of course_ he just had to switch with Kara and deal with her incredibly terrifying sister. (Why couldn't it have been Oliver?! At least then he'd be able to see Felicity.)

"I don't know!" He stutters truthfully. "I just woke up in some abandoned alley and before I knew it, I was flying and I broke a house and I didn't mean it, I swear, and I have no idea where Kara is, I swear I didn't hurt her, god, I'd _never_ hurt her, not intentionally—not that I have or will because I love her and I'm pretty sure she alone can kick my ass to the next Earth and not to mention Ollie—"

Alex lowers her gun. "Barry?"

He smiles excitedly, but he doesn't dare put his hands down. "Yeah!"

She shakes her head slightly in amusement. "God, you're... exactly like her."

* * *

"You are not Oliver."

"Yeah, no. Sorry. Um, I have no idea how I'm in this Earth right now, much less in Ollie's body, so..."

"This Earth? Wait... Kara?"

"Hey, Felicity."


	2. The Middle

"I really wanna ask why this had to happen, but I'm still stuck on the how."

The day after they'd realized what was happening, Felicity and Dig had left Star City — right into the very capable hands of the handful of heroes and tech specialists that stayed behind — to take ~~Oliver~~ Kara to Central City while Cisco had gone to Earth-38 to retrieve ~~Kara~~ Barry and Alex to solve their little Freaky Friday predicament.

It's been five days since then, and they still haven't switched back yet.

"According to all your tests, you're all how you should be: in scarily perfect health," Caitlin says. She gestures at ~~Kara~~ Barry with an open palm. "The solar radiation in Kara's body is still at its optimal level, as is the Speed Force in Barry's."

"Why am I sensing a but coming?" Joe sighs.

Caitlin nods. She heads to her computer, pulls up the scans and projects them onto the screens for everyone to see. "This is the PET scan I took of Barry's brain a month ago, after he came out of the Speed Force. Perfectly normal. Now this," she pulls up a different image, "is the scan I took this morning."

"Uh," Wally drawls. "I-I don't see a difference."

"Exactly!" Caitlin says. "Because that's actually Kara's brain."

"Mine?"

"You as in your body's brain."

"Wait, so what you're saying is they all switched brains?!" Felicity asks incredulously. Her mind immediately jumps to the idea of brain transplants and as far as she knows, brain transplants aren't possible.

Caitlin tilts her head and purses her lips. "Not to that extent. Before Barry got knocked out, he was struck with a tremendous amount of electrical energy that even his accelerated healing shouldn't have been able to cope with."

"Kara was struck too..." Alex realizes.

"Then I guess I was hit too."

"So this... energy, whatever it was, it was strong enough to swap our consciousness?"

"How is that even remotely possible?" Joe asks before pointing at Alex and ~~Kara~~ Barry. "I'd sorta understand it if Oliver and Barry switched, but Kara? She was in her own Earth at the time."

Caitlin shrugs, slightly deterred at the inability to explain the strange event. She knows she isn't the only one wishing Harry'd been in the room since he's the most knowledgeable when it comes to multiverse phenomena.

"Maybe it was Music Meister again?" Kara pipes up. Felicity stares at Oliver's body, which is currently being taken over by Kara. It's almost been a week and she still can't get over the fact that Oliver's face smiles so brightly and so genuinely; that Oliver's voice is higher and playful; that Oliver  _skips_  in the halls of S.T.A.R. Labs. Rationally, she knows it's not Oliver, but  _still_. Having been so used to the brooding aura Oliver always carries around, she soaks up all the wide grins and shrill giggling she can get.

Barry shakes Kara's head, still getting used to having  _long blonde_  hair (Alex had initially suggested he put it up in a bun so he'd be less distracted, but he likes running his hand through Kara's hair so he'd politely declined). "No, I don't think he did this. Last time he whammied us, it was to teach us three a lesson. So unless one of us plans on breaking things off..."

Oliver makes a face. "Well..."

Kara widens Oliver's eyes as she stares at ~~Barry~~ Oliver. "Are you serious?"

Oliver rolls Barry's eyes (Felicity also can't get over Oliver being in Barry's body, doing all of his typical habits. It's weird. She wants her sweet-and-loveable-like-pudding Barry Allen back; she doesn't want this brooding, very much sarcastic Barry-not-Barry.) "I'm kidding."

" _Great!_ " Kara says in a tone that implies everything about this is the opposite of great. She throws her hands up in exasperation. "Good to know you find humor in this, but I'd very much like to be back in my own body!"

Barry grins, all teeth and smug. "Why? Miss being the total bad ass?"

Kara crosses her arms over her chest and lightly kicks at a table. "... yeah."

Everyone can't help it, they all laugh. They aren't too sure if it's because Oliver's face is actually doing that classic Kara Danvers' pout or because Oliver-not-Oliver just  _whined_.

"Okay," Oliver says as he stands up to Barry's full height, commanding everyone's attention with just his stance (Felicity internally snickers because the effect of his desired outcome kind of falls flat when he's adorable Barry). "Since we're pretty much close to solving this crisis as we are getting ourselves switched back, let's train."

Kara jumps in joy while Barry groans.

* * *

Training is  _atrocious_ , Kara later discovers. She's still having trouble getting used to being at the pinnacle of the human condition, which is still nothing compared to her own capabilities. She's not weak per se, just  _weaker_  than she typically is. She'd already had a taste of being as regular as a human being can be a handful of times, so she knows what she's supposed to expect, but having to deal with it in someone else's body as she navigates her way through just makes this whole situation even more stressful.

And Oliver, she quickly learns, is  _brutal_  when it comes to training. Especially now that he has Barry's speed. (She's known he's vicious when it comes to training — before they started dating, Barry told her that Oliver shot him — but having to witness it with her own eyes is a whole different experience altogether).

The arrow she shoots ends up just a little left several feet over ~~her~~ Barry's head.

"Again," he demands from the sideline, arms crossed over Barry's chest in a typical Oliver way. "Lower."

Barry flinches and yelps out in protest, "Wait what? No!"

His horror reflects on her actions as she lowers Oliver's bow (which surprisingly feels right at home having a bow and arrow in her hands, even though she'd never picked them up before). "I'm with Barry on this one."

Oliver breathes out through Barry's nose loudly, irritated. "Kara, Barry's not the archer amongst us, I am; and when I say lower, aim  _lower._  You're not Supergirl anymore, at least not right now. As Oliver Queen, you have a lot of enemies and you're going to need to protect yourself and, without your powers, you'll need to rely on skill and strategy to stay alive." His voice hardens, "Again."

Barry winces. "Why did I agree on being the target?"

Oliver smirks. "You're not the target; the apple on your head is. Besides, you're pretty much invincible now, Barry. You'll be fine."

Barry waves Kara's arms around. "My brain doesn't know that!"

Watching Barry train Oliver is even more nerve-wracking. Oliver's fainted a few times in the past few days due to hypoglycemia and pushing himself too hard. He's broken quite a few bones crashing into things. His problem isn't exactly the running part, it's the  _stopping_  part. It's two trips back to the med bay and two hours of unconsciousness later when he soon gets the hang of it after learning it's much more efficient to skid than slow down to a stop.

Now that he got the running part done, Barry's all too eager to teach him a couple of tricks his speed allows him to do.

"Lightning?" Oliver sputters in a way that almost makes him look like Barry.

Barry grins as he shrugs. "Yeah!"

"No," Oliver just deadpans firmly.

"C'mon, Ollie, this is training! You were the one who insisted on it, by the way!"

Oliver chuckles non-humorously. "Barry, all the speedster knowledge you acquired was accumulated over  _years!_  I can't pick up everything you learned in days."

"No, but like Caitlin said, muscle memory. My body knows what it's doing, you're just learning what it's already been doing for years."

"Bar—"

"And besides, you make Kara train some pretty hardcore advanced archery stuff and combat fighting that she'd never gotten before too. How is that any different?"

Kara guffaws a little at the way Oliver clenches Barry's jaw because Barry did have a point. Her short bursts of mirth are cut short when she hears it: the crackle of electricity. She's a little stunned to see the signature yellow lightning being emitted from ~~Barry's~~ Oliver's eyes.

Barry beams. Kara leaves the room; should Oliver fail, she is not willing to stick around and find out what lightning would feel in a human body.

At first, she thought training Barry wouldn't be all too hard, but of course life doesn't make anything easy. She's not a teacher; in fact, half the time she's been Supergirl, she's still learning the ins and outs of being a hero. Barry's been a hero longer than she has and Oliver's been one for even longer; they have the scars and experience to get through anything, and Kara often gets jealous at their levelheadedness in situations that threaten their mortalities or their ease at making up rough plans that eventually leads to botched up success. Whenever Kara finds herself at the brink of giving up, Oliver and Barry — Rao bless them — give her encouraging spiels and pep talks, which ultimately leads to a night's worth of kisses and cuddles.

"Barry, you're just jumping," she says gently, taking note of his frustration evident on ~~her~~ his face.

"Isn't—" He looks like she's about to cry; she suspects it's because her body's so pent-up with frustration and one of the ways to relieve that is by crying. "Isn't that how you jumpstart flight?"

"Not really." But her statement turns into a question as her tone curls up at the end. Now that she thinks about it, she doesn't really know  _how_  she flies. If she wills it, she just ends up in the air. She rubs her fingers against her temple, a habit she'd only picked up recently being in Oliver's body. "I'm sorry."

Barry steps closer to her and hugs her. She's amazed at the fact that even though Barry has yet to learn how to use her powers, he still makes it his number one priority to comfort her; she didn't think she could possibly love him more, but of course he proves her wrong.

She marvels at how small, slender and dainty she actually is, compared to Oliver's broad and muscular figure. She can see why both of them admitted early on in their relationship that receiving hugs from her are addictive. They haven't been intimate since this whole thing started because having to stare at yourself is more than just a mood-kill.

But right now, seeing her own eyes widen with so much love and devotion, she isn't seeing herself; she's seeing Barry. She pulls Barry up and kisses him earnestly.

It's a couple of seconds later when she notices it; she smiles against ~~her~~ his mouth, Oliver's stubble tickling Barry.

"What?" Barry whispers against Oliver's lips.

Kara kisses him once again before mumbling back, "You're floating."

 ~~Her~~ His eyes snap open in panic before promptly crashing quite harshly to the ground. Thankfully he's her, so it shouldn't have hurt at all (except maybe his pride).

"Can you do it again?"

"Uh... I don't think so." Barry combs ~~her~~ his hand through ~~her~~ his hair. "Maybe kiss me again?"

She laughs but happily obliges.


	3. The End

Team Flash, Team Arrow and the self-proclaimed Super Friends ("For the  _last_  time, Winn, we are  _not_  calling ourselves the Super Friends!" "Clark likes it..." "Clark's your boyfriend, he's practically _obligated_  to like it.") have been devising ways to reverse their problem. 

The problem with their already existing problem is that it's obviously not a quick fix or can be solved in a week; that much had been cleared when they passed the two week mark with the trio of heroes still stuck in their predicament.

So what do the heroes do in the meantime? 

Be the heroes their respective bodies are.

What would be the point of all the training, right?

Besides, what else could they do?

* * *

On her way to Verdant to hang out with Thea, who she now actually sees and treats like her own little sister, Kara is attacked in the middle of an alley by someone with an extreme hatred for Oliver.

By then, it's already been a month and within those four weeks, she has honed her fighting and archery skills to damn near perfection due to muscle memory and extreme dedication on Kara's part.

 ~~Oliver's~~ Her white teeth glints in the dark as she grins in anticipation.

She catches a stray arrow that threatens to pierce her in the chest and immediately engages herself into a fight with the adversary.

_Block, punch, grab foe's bow, use bow to hit temple, block, hit temple again, discard bow, grab guy's head, bring knee up to slam into the guy's forehead, block, punch, kick, final blow._

The man is unconscious before he even hits the ground. By the time she looks up to see the blue glow that appears before her out of nowhere, she finds herself staring at the Flash and Vibe, completely still and jaws dropped.

"Oh hey, guys!" She says happily at the sight of her boyfriend, waving before skipping her way to them. She drops a kiss on ~~Barry's~~ Oliver's cheek then throws an arm over his shoulders.

Cisco takes off his glasses and rubs at his eyes, exclaiming, "Man, I thought you were back in your own body! She mastered your signature glare for a second there!"

Her response is simply a full-blown grin, teeth and all.

* * *

In the heat of a battle, Barry is doing just fine on his own as Earth-38's Supergirl, able to beat Kara's enemies in tactical ways Kara wouldn't even think of in the first place.

But... that doesn't exactly mean that Barry has mastered Kara's powers outside of being Supergirl...

"Dammit!" He curses, running his hand through his long hair in frustration.

Next to him on the coach, Winn laughs and pats him on the shoulder. 

"Don't worry, Barry. I'm already working on making a controller that can hold up to your strength. Clark's been helping me modify it."

"Thanks, man," he says in reply, already used to hearing Kara's voice instead of his own when he talks.

He tries his best to look calm, but he's internally freaking out because Winn having to make a Kryptonian-proof XBOX controller would mean he, Ollie and Kara are stuck in their little problem for the long haul.

Man, does he miss being the Flash.

* * *

He wakes up to a light that is furiously being shined into his eyes then is shortly greeted to an angry-looking Caitlin.

"You know just because you can heal fast now does  _not_  mean you can be just as reckless as Barry is!" She scolds. There's a moment of déjà vu in Oliver's mind because he knows he's used those exact words on Barry.

"Yeah," Cisco agrees. He's leaned against the wall in the med bay, sucking on a lollipop. "Talk about being a hypocrite. 'Barry, your powers may grant you quick healing, but you can't heal when you're dead.'"

He grimaces at the pair of them. He knows they're just doing this because they care; granted, he's not actually their real Barry, but they're still friends.

He chooses to ignore Cisco and looks up at Caitlin. "Please tell me you've figured out how to fix us."

Caitlin's admonishing scowl drops and a small smile comes to play. "As a matter of fact..."

"We just did," Cisco finishes with a wink.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CAN I JUST SAY THAT I SHIP WINN/CLARK BECAUSE HIS REACTION TO CLARK ON THE SHOW EVERY TIME IS JUST AMAZING.
> 
> also, there's no karivarry moment here, but dun worry, i plan on spoiling all y'all in the epilogue


	4. Epilogue

"Barry? Son? You okay? Woah there. Careful. How you feelin'?"

He blinks and tilts his head in confusion. "Um... who's Barry?"

"Oh no. Damn, not again! Caitlin!"

He jerks back but finds himself unable to move back any further due to his hand being attached to an IV line. "Where the hell am I? Who are you people? Who am  _I?_ "

"Barry, calm down! We're your friends! Your family! Don't you remember me? Cisco? A.K.A. your BFF?"

"My what?"

" _Caitlin! There's something seriously wrong!_ "

The bed next to him rattles. "Ugh, shut up. Some of us want to sleep..."

"Kara? Hey, you're awake. Talk to me."

"Whoever you are, I'm not Kara so leave me alone."

"Why the hell don't they remember who they are?"

"What the hell's going on?"

"Oliver!"

"Uhh, you talking to me?"

"Okay, yeah, this is bad."

He can't help it. He bursts out laughing.

"Oh no, Cait! He's  _hysterical!_  See, I  _knew_  we weren't ready! We should've waited for Harry's calculations!"

"Just shut up for one second, Cisco. Barry, you okay? It's me, Iris, your sister."

He can't stop laughing, tears oozing out of his eyes. He looks to his side to look at his fellow bed-ridden mates. "Sorry, guys. I just couldn't."

"Dammit, Barry, I was already in character," Kara complains as she kicks the covers off.

"What the hell?" Cisco says.

"I wanna be mad at you but I'm actually impressed," Oliver tells him. "You didn't even last two minutes."

"Okay no. That ain't right. That's just cruel!" Cisco interrupts. "We thought something went really wrong. Who put you up to this?" Cisco scans the three of them and decides he's the culprit. "It was you, wasn't it?" Cisco looks at Oliver and Kara accusatorily. "Barry put you up to this, didn't he?"

Kara giggles. "It was Ollie, actually."

The room is stunned. He feels like laughing again.

"Huh. The Green Arrow has a sense of humor?" Iris teases.

He shrugs. "Apparently. I had to have one as the Flash. People were getting confused as to why the Flash was lacking comebacks," he answers nonchalantly.

"Comebacks. Out of all the things, they notice the lack of comebacks."

"Hey, it's your fault for making up puns in dire situations!"

"That's how you make them not-so-dire!"

"Okay yeah, they're back all right," Winn says. He glances at his watch and walks out of the med bay. "Welp, I'm out. I'm supposed to be meeting Clark in an hour so..." Winn quickly approaches him and lightly punches at his shoulder. "Man, I'll miss playing Halo with you! You'll have to come to our Earth at least once a week! You still owe me a rematch!"

"Hey! I play video games too!" Kara says loudly, lightly glaring at her best friend.

"Flappy Bird doesn't count!"

"Okay,  _out,_ " Caitlin orders everyone sternly. "These three may act all fine, but I'm not convinced. Rest more. Your bodies went through a brief refractory period and I want to make sure you're all completely good so you won't get any ill effects when you go back to your superhero-ing."

"Thanks, Cait," he says, genuinely thankful for her. He'd long be dead without her medical expertise.

She beams at him and nods, exiting with the others following suit.

"Hey," Joe says, pointing at him. "You need anything, I'm here, okay?"

He smiles. "I know, Joe."

The three of them are then left alone in silence.

He breaks it.

"Are we actually gonna rest?"

Kara grins at both of them. "Nope! Let's push our beds together! Alex just left me this deck of cards. Wanna play?"

"Can't we just cuddle?" He lightly complains. "Or sneak out and have our first  _real_  date in  _months_ _?_ "

"Play first, then cuddle,  _then_  we sneak out," Oliver compromises for them.

Kara shakes her head. "Play first, sneak out,  _then_  cuddle so least we can cuddle and kiss throughout the night!"

He doesn't admit that he likes that plan very much. "Ugh fine, but you're moving my bed."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is finally done! (and very freaking horribly written. i tried.)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. Feel free to leave a comment.


End file.
